Something funny happened on the way to tyranny

BQI Editor’s Note

I am sad and disheartened that my country has been brought to this. Say what you will about George W. Bush, and as a conservative I’ve had some less than glowing things to say about him, one thing is for certain, in the eight years of his administration I know for sure that he did not divide the country to the point where people felt the need to arm themselves for a possible civil war. Unfortunately this is what Barack Obama has given to the country. As his federal agencies stock up on weapons and ammunition, (DHS Buys 200,000 More Rounds of Ammunition) thousands of Americans are doing the same.

Barack Obama has been THE most divisive and radical president in the nation’s history and because too many low information Americans along with the mainstream media refuse to see him for who and what he is, America is being brought to a point where all of us will suffer.

Something funny happened on the way to tyranny

WRITTEN BY: BOB OWENS- DEC• 31•12

I dropped my car off this morning at my mechanic’s, as the clutch appeared to be on its last legs. Being a beautiful morning in the mid-40s, I decided to walk home, and soak in some of the small-town downtown ambiance along the way. The sleepy antique stores were not seeing much business, and I nodded to the painting crew who was outlining the wooden window frames of the bakery in brilliant blue paint as I passed by.

Most of the downtown shops, in fact, weren’t doing much business except the two gun stores. I’d been in one several days ago to pick a .22LR for an article I’d be writing for Shooting Illustrated, and decided to stop in at the other to see what the current political environment had left behind.

There were no less than six clerks working feverishly with the dozen or so customers, so I simply stepped to the side and walked the aisles. The cases of ammunition that typically lined the far wall were picked to pieces. There was a 100-round case of .50 BMG, and cases of European shot shells suitable for small game. The .223 Remington, 5.56 NATO, 7.62×39, 7.62 NATO, and 7.62x54R had sold out long ago, along with the bulk 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP.

A few pump shotguns remained along with a smattering of deer rifles, single-shots, and longer double-barreled shotguns suitable only for trap or skeet. Even the semi-automatic .22LR rifles like Ruger 10/22s were gone, along with all but one BX-25 magazine.

The customers in the shop were picking through what remained; lever-action rifles, oddball shotguns, and the smattering of name-brand center fire pistols. One man was attempting to trade in an antique double-barrel shotgun for something more current.

I did speak to one harried clerk, briefly.

They didn’t know when they’d be getting anything back in stock, from magazines to rifles to pistols. Manufacturers were running full-bore, but couldn’t come close to keeping up with market demand. It wasn’t just the AR-15s, the AK-pattern rifles, the M1As, and the FALs that were sold out. It really hit me when I realized that the World War-era M1 Garands, M1 carbines, and Enfield .303s were gone, along with every last shell. Ubiquitous Mosin-Nagants—of which every gun store always seems to have 10-20—were gone. So was their ammo. Only a dust free space marked their passing. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Every weapon of military utility designed within the past 100+ years was gone. This isn’t a society stocking up on certain guns because they fear they may be banned. This is a society preparing for war.

I wonder if this is what it felt like during the time of the Powder Alarm, and fear politicians both sides of the aisle are no more speaking the same language as most Americans as Gage was unable to think like the Colonials. There is an earnestness now on both sides, and a great chance for unintended consequences.

POST SCRIPT

BQI Editor’s Note

As an anecdote to this story I share with you an email that I just received from a dear friend:

The Friday after Christmas, XXX and I took our younger daughter and her husband out shooting as is our tradition Christmas week. (Yeah, I know, it is the season of peace. But different strokes for different folks and it is good, fun family time together…) Anyway, we have a small chain of gun stores/ranges here called: Bill’s Gun Shop and Range. They have 3 stores in the suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul and generally have the largest selection of rifles and pistols anywhere in Minnesota.

When we went that Friday, they had ABSOLUTELY nothing (in any of the 3 stores) left for the AR platform, except for 3 from some manufacturer that I had never heard of. That manufacturer made their guns in China, so you can imagine the quality. Even those cheap, crappy rifles were going for close to $1000! They did have a couple WWI vintage bolt action British Enfields, but there is no way I could shoot a gun at the range that beautiful and historically significant.

Bill’s has a reputation for being on the high end for their ammunition prices. The day we went shooting, 12/29, I paid $23.75 each for a couple boxes of 7.62 NATO rounds. Yesterday, I saw the same rounds (exact same manufacturer and packaging) for $49 at the LuckyGunner.com (one of the cheaper places I have found)! That is more than a 100% increase in 8 days! Today I noticed they were sold out.

Given the shortages and prices of ammunition, I thought I should stock up on brass since I am setup to load my own bullets. But brass is not available (at ANY price). I took some time off for Christmas. (Only one week left L of vacation.) So, I started searching around to find out what I would need to buy to setup to make my own brass and resell it on the internet. I figured if I could get setup with some old WWII vintage machine shop tools for less than $100K, I could literally hire a mutant or two to run the press and package the shipments and make enough to pay for the machinery in less than a month. The problem is the folks that manufacture the dies for punching raw brass into casings are SO backlogged they told me it would take at least a year before I could even get the dies!